Putting Your Best Oar Behind You

"The most common gunning oar is a bent-bladed oar about 8 feet long with the tip 6 inches or so out of line with the shaft axis. The blade is thin, with an asymmetric section, flat side down, convex side up. This is the same section found in a straight gunning oar, which has an extremely long, thin blade, narrower at the tip than at the shoulder. By curving the top of the blade, less wrist twist is needed in the stroke. Steering these floats with a curved sculling oar was a problem."Story